Never ending to-do list

[newsailor0193]

Hey everyone!

Haha, sorry for the doom and gloom title. We just moved aboard and life has been crazy.

We just got a new dinghy and the place where we bought it from didn't really tell us much. It's been a few days and someone at the marina just told us that we had to register and title it. I never even thought of that, so now it makes me wondering what else we're missing.

We went with the CG documentation for our sailboat, we're insured, we're outfitting our boat for cruising, and we found a marina for while we finish getting everything else ready.

What did you overlook when you bought your boat and moved aboard? What else am I missing?

[Greg4cocokai]

I have never registered to Dingy. I'm on the West Coast. Maybe you're in Florida?

[Mike OReilly]

Oh heck … if I knew then what I know now, I never would have bought that first boat .

Does she float? Does she keep most of the water out most of the time? Does the rig stay up, and the sails work? If so, you’re all good. The rest is just detail.

[newsailor0193]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Oh heck … if I knew then what I know now, I never would have bought that first boat .

Does she float? Does she keep most of the water out most of the time? Does the rig stay up, and the sails work? If so, you’re all good. The rest is just detail.

hahaha thanks! I know I'm overthinking it but this guy pretty much just could not believe that we did not know to register and title the dinghy, and basically told us that we were way over our heads and weren't going to make it. It just made me wonder what other paperwork things we're overlooking.

[newsailor0193]

Originally Posted by Greg4cocokai

I have never registered to Dingy. I'm on the West Coast. Maybe you're in Florida?

Yep, Florida.

[CarlF]

To stay with the spirit of your post, just the dinghy is an endless to-do list.

Yes, if it has an outboard you should register it. Water cops will look for the number on the bow and ask to see the registration if they stop you. At least everywhere on the East Coast.

But once you have your nifty new registration number, you will come to the real problem - how to put the registration numbers on your inflatable dinghy.

A quick search of this forum will show that this is a much bigger controversy than you would have guessed. Perhaps not as big as which anchor to use - but right up there.

Welcome!

[Jd1]

Here in BC Canada you only need to register a vessel/boat/bathtub/lifepreserver when it has an engine over 9.9 hp. When you do that, they also ding you for provincial and federal taxes for the dinghy and the motor. Sneaky buggers !

[Jd1]

Originally Posted by newsailor0193

hahaha thanks! I know I'm overthinking it but this guy pretty much just could not believe that we did not know to register and title the dinghy, and basically told us that we were way over our heads and weren't going to make it. It just made me wonder what other paperwork things we're overlooking.

Everybody starts out at roughly the same spot .... ask the guy that is sooooo smart how he made it so far, after all, I am pretty darn sure he didn't know everything there is to know before he got his first boat.



If you are planning on sailing around the globe right away then he is probably right


Better yet, the next time he tells you that you will never make it, ask him, seeing he knows everything, how the theoretical hull speed of a displacement vessel is calculated (or something similarly obscure). Note that hull speed is actually not really obscure but if he is the fountain f all knowledge he should fire the answer right back. I of course would have to look it up despite my 5 or so years of sailing

[a64pilot]

Actually if he is so smart ask why he is in a marina in Fl with hurricane season approaching

[Simi 60]

Been living aboard on the hook for two years now.
Still have most of the original "to do" list to do.
Somehow it just doesn't seem as important now as it did then.

[Markhunter1097]

Sailors that know the least sail more miles. If you know too much u don’t go. Met a couple that sailed the pacific in a 35 ft boat straight out of the boat show, their first time sailing and had a ball, me never I know way too much to be so stupid!
Wish I was stupider

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by newsailor0193

hahaha thanks! I know I'm overthinking it but this guy pretty much just could not believe that we did not know to register and title the dinghy, and basically told us that we were way over our heads and weren't going to make it. It just made me wonder what other paperwork things we're overlooking.

Early on I had to get towed into a marina due to a very simple problem just about anyone should have been able to identity and fix. It was embarrassing, and a costly mistake, but during the “crisis” I met this old mechanic and we got talking.

I was feeling embarrassed and a bit deflated. But he assured me that everyone starts off knowing very little, and that all people need is a little common sense and some basic skills; the kind everyone has. “You’ll be fine,” he says.

After I asked a few more somewhat silly questions he finally starts to look at me more critically, and then asks: “So son, what do you actually do?”

“Me? I’m a writer,” says I with some pride, beginning to feel confidence return.

“OK then … you’re in trouble.”

[SSgtPitt]

Mike, I think the old mechanic said something about...... “common sense”

[MV Wanderlust]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

if I knew then what I know now, I never would have bought that first boat

You and me both, brother.

Originally Posted by Jd1

Everybody starts out at roughly the same spot .... ask the guy that is sooooo smart how he made it so far, after all, I am pretty darn sure he didn't know everything there is to know before he got his first boat.

That.

[billknny]

Originally Posted by Greg4cocokai

I have never registered to Dingy. I'm on the West Coast. Maybe you're in Florida?

EVERY state requires a dinghy with an engine to be registered as a motorboat. There are some technical ways to avoid it, but they don't apply to most cruising boats.

Now having said that, a LOT of people ignore this. But some people get tickets for unregistered boats too.